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To become a doctor, you require some qualities and skills, I don’t have them all as I’ve never been put in a situation where I would have to care for someone or even assist someone. I am a reserved person and don’t have much confidence to voluntarily talk to someone. I know for a fact that as a doctor you need to be able to talk to people and you need to sound confident in order to be trusted by your patients. When given an opportunity to improve my confidence, I took it.

I am volunteering at a dementia care home and once a week I go and talk to a resident for an hour. On my first visit, I struggled to start a conversation or even talk to the resident because I thought that they didn’t want to talk to me and I was just wasting their time. However, I realised that they are actually grateful for the company, even though we were sat in silence for half the time. By the end of our session, I had become comfortable talking to the resident. The second time I went to visit, the resident didn’t recognise me and, naturally, I was a bit disheartened that I hadn’t left a memorable impression the first time, but when it was time for me to leave she asked me to come back again and I could tell that she liked talking to me (mostly because I listen very well to make up for my lack of speech). Although I wasn’t taking care of the resident, I was giving them space to confide in me.

Sometimes patients might not require assistance or care, they might just need someone to talk to and make their hospital experience more comfortable.

‘When do I write the UKCAT/BMAT? Where do I want to study medicine? Medicine is such a long course, will I be able to travel and do other things I want to do? Will I be able to last through the application process?’

I am a year 12 student aspiring to become a doctor. However, one does not just simply become a doctor. As my desire to become a doctor increased, all of the above questions started to invade my mind. I was not able to find simple answers on the web and I was not sure what I had to do next.

One of the first steps I had taken was visit a medical exhibition where I was given all the information as well as tips to get into a medical university. But like I said, one does not simply become a doctor with information and tips, it all depends on how you implement the knowledge you’ve gained.

This blog will showcase how I implement this knowledge I have gained and the experiences I am yet to encounter.